Aurore Munezero
Addis Ababa
Summary
Obtain a challenging control position, applying creative problem solving and management skills with a growing company to accomplish best utilization of its resources.
Finance professional with strong background in financial management, analysis, and reporting. Adept at team collaboration and achieving results, with flexible approach to changing needs. Skilled in budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, and compliance. Known for reliability, analytical thinking, and effective problem-solving.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Finance Officer
AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION
06.2018 - Current
- Working under the supervision of Head of Peace Fund and Peace and Security Finance Division, I am assigned to Peace Support Operations (PSOs) Units, a portfolio handling financial resources of more than USD 300 million from funding partners.
- Review and update the dashboard for Peace Support Operations (PSOs) projects for management.
- Administers and monitors Funding Partners resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
- Authorizes disbursements of funds based on funds availability and approved budgets to vendors and services providers.
- Manage and monitor the procurement of works, consultancy and non-consultancy services based on approved procurement plans in close consultation with Procurement Division.
- Prepares budget performance submissions to management and Funding Partners.
- Prepare annual results based budgets in line with approved strategic decisions by Member States.
- Prepare financial statements and maintaining financial records of contributions from donors and analysing expenditures and balances relating to the transaction of the funds.
- Submit annual budget and supplementary budget requests for PSOs projects.
- Ensure funds received for projects are expensed based on AU Financial Rules and Regulations and disbursements follow the internal controls already in place in terms of approvals and released of funds.
- Prepare quarterly financial report and undertaking the day-to-day accounting and financial management and support services for the projects and maintaining a database on accounting and financial information.
- Supervise Accountant Assistant by planning and reviewing weekly and monthly duties achievements; verify, and approve all financial transactions recorded in SAP system on a daily basis.
- Prepare as the focal point for internal and external audit exercises, respond to audit queries on internal controls and other audit findings and follow up on implementation of audit recommendations.
- Prepare end-of-year closure steps for financial statements.
- Perform any other task that may be assigned by the Head of Peace Fund.
- Peace and Security Operations Unit
- Successful implementation of the project with an execution rate of more than 95% every year. This resulted in satisfied funding partners and beneficiaries and achievement of mandated mission objectives.
- Improvement of business processes to respond to a volatile environment and achieve objectives based on available resources.
- External audits have produced zero ineligibles since year 2020.
Finance and Administration Officer
TRADEMARK EAST AFRICA (TMEA)
12.2011 - 06.2017
- I was responsible for providing comprehensive finance and administrative support to the Rwanda and Burundi Country Offices, with the specific responsibility of ensuring the quality of service delivery through Budget control and financial operations remain is consistent, efficient, responsive and seamless in the Rwanda and Burundi Country Office.
- Provide comprehensive finance and administration support to Rwanda and Burundi Country Directors and TMEA staff.
- Maintain the bank account for the Rwanda and Burundi Country Programmes.
- Perform book keeping function and bank reconciliation in Navision.
- Follow up on TMEA Burundi and Rwanda bank accounts operations and movements on a daily basis.
- Ensure advances, surrender and vendor payments are processed on time.
- Manage procurement of office stationery and other supplies ensuring quality and cost control of all items procured to support TMEA administrative operations.
- Provide HR and report any ICT issue for the Rwanda and Burundi Country offices.
- Coordinate all logistic support for meetings, workshops, staff activities including staff and partners ‘travel and disburse travel expenses and claims.
- Support Country Directors, Programme officers in programme implementation through grants’ monitoring and evaluation.
- Manage office assets register and ensuring accurate records of minor assets at all times.
- Prepare financial reports as may be required by the Rwanda and Burundi Country Programme and the regional office.
- Ensure adherence and awareness of TMEA internal controls, processes and procedures by TMEA staff.
- Participate in regular team meetings, take minutes for distribution and provide updates on issues of interest.
- Respond to Audit Reports and Queries.
- Burundi Country Programme and Rwanda Country Programme
- Approve transactions and use of funds for projects.
- Approve online transactions: purchase requisitions, journal vouchers and budget transfers.
- Monitor the status of budget spending/activity by reviewing financial real-time reports on a regular basis.
- Provide advice to project leaders about the budget calendar actions: budget revisions, redeployment of funds and commitment rollover in the next financial year.
- Prepare Budget annexes for the Rwanda and Burundi Country offices business plans.
- Supervise two drivers, two finance and administration Assistants and three office assistants.
- Transfer knowledge through regular trainings to Finance and Administration assistants.
- Set key performance indicators and provide advice on improvement on a regular basis.
- Develop coaching and knowledge sharing sessions for career development programmes.
Finance and Administration Assistant
United Nations Office in Burundi
06.2010 - 06.2011
- Preparing Bank Reconciliations: follow-up on outstanding cases with bank officers.
- Obligate Miscellaneous Obligations and Purchase Orders, Travel Authorisations in Sun Systems when approved.
- Review the Status of Payables and Receivables twice a month.
- Perform monthly closing of accounts.
- Prepare financial reports to be sent to UNHQ.
- Advise Cost Centre Managers about spending progress on a monthly basis.
- Provide back-up to Payroll and Payments Units whenever needed.
- Respond to audit queries.
- I also provided administrative support to the Chief Finance Officer (CFO):
- Streamline the filing system in the CFO's office for easy reference and retrieval of documents.
- Manage the leave roster.
- Draft monthly Remittance Request to UNHQ (UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS) and other correspondences (faxes and memos) as necessary or requested by CFO.
- Organise and schedule Finance Section staff meetings and take minutes.
- Provide advice and follow-up on matters raised by Finance staff and ensure all matters are settled at the right time.
- Receive on line correspondences from overseas and local vendors and direct them to the relevant Unit.
- Serve as Personal Assistant to the Chief Finance Officer.
Finance Assistant
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
11.2008 - 06.2009
- Petty Cash Establishments and regular replenishments for 25 Regional Offices.
- Conducted Cash Count Surprise in 25 Regional Offices.
- Analyzed and Identified recurrent administrative and Finance related issues for 25 regional offices.
- Processed various approved cash advances and grants and ensured they were accounted for in a timely manner.
- Provided prompt and accurate responses to queries and other requests from suppliers.
- Followed–up on pending matters from suppliers, ensured they were rapidly settled and UN Financial Rules and Regulations were not circumvented.
- Trained colleagues on Invoice processing and Claims reimbursements according to the UN Financial Rules and Regulations.
- Ensured revised and updated UN Financial Rules and Regulations were observed and documented at the right time.
- Served as back-up for Vendor’s Unit Supervisor.
- Prepared monthly cash forecast to be submitted to Cashier Unit.
- Performed other duties as assigned by the Unit Chief and the Chief Finance Officer.
- Finance Section Vendors and Claims Unit
- I conducted on-the-spot checks to 25 regional and sub-regional offices and addressed issues faced by Project Managers.
- This affected the good performance of the Finance Section: Long outstanding receivables were accounted for.
- Grant levels were reviewed for some regional offices so that cash could be used in an effective and efficient manner by funds custodians.
- I trained my counterparts on Grant Management in accordance with UN Financial Rules and Regulations and this allowed Finance Section to run smoothly by promoting team work and continuous learning.
- Being a client oriented person and with my experience from other field missions, in collaboration with Procurement Officers we cleared and reconciled all outstanding invoices and payment requests which allowed the organization to process all the long outstanding payables.
- This resulted in suppliers’ satisfaction.
- I monitored all payment requests and other claims from suppliers on a regular basis, to avoid payment duplications.
Finance Assistant
United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL)
04.2007 - 09.2008
- Input organization’s financial commitments into SUN SYSTEMS and monitor actual expenditure against assigned funds.
- Processing of vouchers for expenses incurred by UNIOSIL for other Missions and Agencies.
- Review expenditure and liquidate unused funds on a monthly basis.
- Backup all data stored in SUN SYSTEMS and review transactions input in the system on a daily basis.
- Supervising national counterparts by providing guidance and checking vouchers processed before submission for approval to the Head of Accounts.
- Follow up on pending issues and advise the Chief Finance Officer.
- Prepare Bank Reconciliations for Standard Chartered Bank NY, Sierra Leone and for JP Morgan Chase.
- Perform end-month closing procedures in Sun Systems.
- Prepare and submit monthly and annual financial reports to Headquarter.
- Follow up on long outstanding receivables and payables and prepare ageing receivable and Payable statements.
- Budget monitoring.
- Provide advice to Cost Center Managers regarding funds redeployment when necessary.
- Act as Officer in Charge of Account Unit in the absence of the Head of Accounts.
- Provide support to other Units when needed.
- Extra efforts in collecting long outstanding receivables enabled UNIOSIL to minimize accounts receivables and write-offs at the end of Biennium 2006-2007.
- I kept a tight follow-up on payables and receivables to ensure a clean and proper record of transactions: oversights were detected and adjusted on time.
- This was reflected in the report of an external audit carried out in April 2007.
- I provided training and capacity building to my colleagues on monthly accounts closing procedures.
- The outcome was positive due to the fact that transactions were carefully input into Sun systems with minimum errors.
Finance Assistant
United Nations Operations in Burundi (ONUB)
03.2006 - 04.2007
- Receive all incoming payments requests and record them for tracking purposes.
- Review all invoices and supporting documents. Check the compliance with the UN Financial Rules and regulations.
- Liaise with vendors for queries and respond in a timely manner to avoid delay in payment of invoices.
- Liaise and follow-up with Procurement Section, Budget Section and Receiving & Inspection Section to ensure availability of obligation documents necessary for invoices’ payments as well as of certification of goods received or services rendered before payment processes.
- Check that claims presented by staff members were correctly filled out and supported by appropriate documents and process them based on UN Financial Rules and Regulations.
- Issue and clear advances on Quick Impact Projects in a timely manner.
- Invoices and other documents received by Payments Unit could be easily tracked due.
- Timely settlement of payment requests increased the efficiency and competence of the Finance team in achieving the section’s objectives.
Administrative Assistant
JOINT LOGISTICS OPERATIONS CENTRE (JLOC)
03.2005 - 02.2006
- Receive record and route incoming mail.
- Create and maintain a good filing system.
- Compile weekly and monthly reports to be submitted to the Chief JLOC.
- Draft minutes after meetings chaired by the Chief JLOC.
- Process attendance sheets for all JLOC staff at the end of the month.
- Manage leave roster.
- Translation tasks (English-French) as required by any staff member.
- United Nations Operations in Burundi
Accountant
Catholic Relief Services- Burundi
07.2004 - 02.2005
- Receive invoices with supporting documents from Procurement Unit and verify the accuracy of documents.
- Ensure that all expenses are in line with the cost allocation and cost sharing as per the agreed cost share.
- Keep in a safe place and handle the petty cash: submit petty cash replenishment request at the right time.
- Ensure that all transactions are held and posted in Sun Systems.
- Prepare financial reports to be submitted to various donors and project Administrators according to their respective reporting formats.
- Prepare the Bank Reconciliation Statement at the end of each of month.
- Follow-up on the status of the organization’s bank account by ensuring funds are remitted by Headquarter at the right time.
- Assist Managers of Projects funded by the European Union and USAID in the management of the budget allocated to the project through drafting monthly reports and cash requests to be submitted to Donors as well as submitting cash forecasts and Projects liquidation report to the Head of Administration and Finance.
- Create a good filing system for all vouchers as well as any financial documents.
- Guidance provided to projects’ managers contributed to their excellent performance through clear and understandable reports and donors were satisfied by the reports.
- After four months, I could easily work with the Sun systems package, and this enabled our finance team to send monthly reports to Headquarters on time in the absence of the Senior Accountant.
Office Manager
Rwanda Environment Awareness Services Organization Network (REASON)
Kigali, Rwanda
12.2003 - 06.2004
- I drafted a plan of activities for the organization to be submitted to Donors (British High Commission in Rwanda).
- Supervised partners’ activities in some primary and secondary school.
- Revised of monthly reports submitted by partners.
- Prepared monthly financial reports.
- Prepared the Budget and Cash Request.
- Translation of official documents as requested by the supervisor.
- Budgeted expenditure and reports were meeting the British High Commission requirements.
- I was in charge of setting up activities that could sensitize the community about tree planting.
- Donors were pleased by the event which was broadcasted on the National Radio.
- Later, the organization was allowed to expand its activities.
- Reduced overheads by ensuring proper use of available resources.
Education
Accounting
Uganda Martyrs University
Uganda01-2003
Master’s in Business Administration and Management - MBA_Strategic Management
University of South Wales
United Kingdom12-2017
Doctoral Programme - Business Administration (DBA)
Unicaf University
Unicaf University In Zambia02-2027
Skills
- Bank reconciliation
- Financial administration
- Accounts payable
- Cash flow management
- Internal controls development
- Cost control
- Accounts receivable
- Expense tracking
- Fixed asset management
- Financial planning
- Revenue recognition
- Internal auditing
- Account reconciliation
- Ledger reconciliation
- Financial audits
- Attention to detail
- Customer service
- Financial reporting
- Human resources knowledge
- Financial analysis and reporting
- Staff management
- Planning and coordination
- Willing to learn
- Proactive and focused
- Budget forecasting
- Proficient in [software program]
- Goal setting
- Process implementation
- Critical thinking
- Decision-making
- Team building leadership
- Employee training oversight
- Risk management
- Risk analysis
Accomplishments
- Achieved [Result] through effectively helping with [Task].
Timeline
Finance Officer
AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION
06.2018 - Current
Finance and Administration Officer
TRADEMARK EAST AFRICA (TMEA)
12.2011 - 06.2017
Finance and Administration Assistant
United Nations Office in Burundi
06.2010 - 06.2011
Finance Assistant
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
11.2008 - 06.2009
Finance Assistant
United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL)
04.2007 - 09.2008
Finance Assistant
United Nations Operations in Burundi (ONUB)
03.2006 - 04.2007
Administrative Assistant
JOINT LOGISTICS OPERATIONS CENTRE (JLOC)
03.2005 - 02.2006
Accountant
Catholic Relief Services- Burundi
07.2004 - 02.2005
Office Manager
Rwanda Environment Awareness Services Organization Network (REASON)
12.2003 - 06.2004
Accounting
Uganda Martyrs University
Master’s in Business Administration and Management - MBA_Strategic Management
University of South Wales
Doctoral Programme - Business Administration (DBA)
Unicaf University